Ten Years later: Assessments of the integrity of publications from one research group with multiple retractions

When a research group has multiple retracted publications and/or research misconduct by a member is evident, there is a risk that its other publications are unreliable, so a comprehensive assessment of the group’s publications is advisable. We analyzed the comprehensiveness of assessment of the integrity of 300 publications by a research group with numerous retractions and known research misconduct, for 292 of which we raised concerns to publishers and academic institutions between 3/2013 and 2/2020. By 4/2023, 91 (30%) publications had not been assessed by either publisher or academic institution. Publishers had assessed 185 (63%) publications. The 4 academic institutions had assessed 5/36 (14%), 56/216 (26%), 30/50 (60%) and 40/66 (61%) publications. Unprompted assessments, those undertaken without our notification of concerns, occurred for 24 (8%) publications, 3 (1%) by publishers and 21 (7%) by academic institutions. Among 32 journals with ≥2 affected publications, no unprompted assessments of the remaining publication(s) occurred after notification of concerns about the index publication(s). Publishers retracted 58/84 (69%) publications which institutions also assessed and decided needed no editorial action. These analyses demonstrate the failure of publishers and institutions to comprehensively and spontaneously determine the integrity of publications in a setting of known misconduct and multiple retractions.

当某研究团队存在多篇撤稿论文（retracted publications），且其成员存在明确的学术不端行为（research misconduct）时，该团队的其他发表成果亦存在可靠性风险，因此对该团队的所有出版物开展全面评估实为必要。我们针对一个存在大量撤稿记录且被证实存在学术不端行为的研究团队的300篇发表论文，评估其学术完整性审查的全面性；在2013年3月至2020年2月期间，我们就其中292篇论文向出版商（publisher）及学术机构（academic institution）提出了学术诚信相关的质疑。截至2023年4月，仍有91篇（占比30%）论文未受到出版商或学术机构的任何评估，其中出版商已完成评估的论文共185篇（占比63%）。4家相关学术机构分别完成了各自涉事论文群体中5/36（14%）、56/216（26%）、30/50（60%）与40/66（61%）的评估工作。未受我方质疑通知触发的自主评估（unprompted assessments，即未收到我方学术关切告知即开展的评估）仅涉及24篇论文（占比8%），其中由出版商完成的为3篇（占比1%），由学术机构完成的为21篇（占比7%）。在涉及2篇及以上受影响论文的32种期刊中，针对该核心质疑论文发出学术不端关切告知后，未再有针对该期刊其余受影响论文的自主评估行为。对于同时被学术机构评估且判定无需采取编辑干预措施（editorial action）的84篇论文，出版商已撤稿58篇（占比69%）。本次分析结果表明，在已知存在学术不端行为且有多篇撤稿的场景下，出版商与学术机构未能全面、主动地对论文的学术完整性开展审查。